It’s been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who’s still reeling from her father’s shocking death in a caving accident and her neighbors’ mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying subzero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in the woods–only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.

X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands’ rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future. But escaping the Lowlands and the ties that bind X might mean the ultimate sacrifice for them both.

Gripping and full of heart, this epic start to a new series will bring readers right to the edge of everything.

~*~

The Edge of Everything opens with an anonymous observation of Zoe, who gives the character she shares the spotlight with his name: X. X is a bounty hunter from the Lowlands, sent to collect souls of those who are deemed to be a threat to innocent people, and who need to be punished, and are made to relive the horrors that have brought this fate upon them. But when X meets Zoe and her younger brother Jonah, and rescues them from freezing to death, he begins to form a bond with both of them – and becomes a part of their lives, and starts to find his feelings for Zoe changing him and what he wants out of life, and forging a desire to leave the Lowlands. X and Zoe forge a relationship, slowly, and perhaps a little awkwardly – it is not the focus of the novel, though. Rather, it is a dual storyline, where each character’s point of view is shown in alternating sections.

Zoe’s close relationship with her younger brother Jonah drives the narrative too. For me, this was the most important relationship – the love of the siblings – and how the sudden death of their father becomes the driving force behind the novel. Zoe is determined to find out what really happened, and with the help of X, a strange bounty hunter from the Lowlands, which is run by lords who punish the innocent for fun, they embark on a journey, along with two souls X knows from the Lowlands, to find out the truth.

There are moments of darkness, and of light, of hope, and devastation, and the final chapters had me holding my breath, hoping everything would be okay. The power within these pages is the characters are all flawed, all hurting in some way, and despite this, they are strong. They are real, or in X and Ripper’s case, as real as they can be in urban fantasy, an intriguing genre that situates fantasy elements within an urban environment to tell a story. Jeff Giles has excelled at this.

I hope that there is more to the story. Upon completion, I felt there could be, and the cliffhanger was neither negative nor tragic – but hovered somewhere between hope and sadness. It is aimed at ages twelve and up, but I feel can be read by anyone who wishes to. It is the kind of novel that creeps under your skin and leaves you wondering – what next?

Looking forward to more about Zoe and X – and Jonah, my favourite character.